CHAPTER III.
MOTOR MATT--TRUSTEE.
Matt and McGlory had seen the Eye of Buddha, and they were not slow inrecognizing it. But the bewildering events of the evening were crownedby this arrival of the ruby, by express, consigned to Motor Matt. Byall the laws of reasoning and logic, the gem, worth a king's ransom,should at that moment have been in the possession of Tsan Ti, en routeto the Flowery Kingdom.
"Oh, tell--me--about this!" stuttered McGlory.
Matt picked the ruby up in his fingers and held it in the palm of hishand. Apparently he was loath to credit the evidence of his senses.From every angle he surveyed the glittering gem.
"Wouldn't this rattle you?" he murmured, peering at his chum.
"Rattle me!" exploded McGlory. "Why, pard, it leaves me high anddry--stranded--gasping like a fish. Tsan Ti must be locoed! At lastaccounts, he was in a flutter to get that ruby back to the Honam josshouse and replace it in the idol's head, where it belongs. What cameover the mandarin to box it up and ship it to you? I'm fair dazed, andno mistake. This cuts the ground right out from under me."
Matt, with a hasty look around, dropped the ruby into his pocket; thenhe pulled out some more of the wadding and discovered, in the bottom ofthe box, a folded sheet of white paper.
"Here's a letter," said he. "This will explain why the ruby was sent tome, I guess."
"What good's an explanation?" grunted the cowboy. "I wouldn't betangled up with that thing for a mint of money. Sufferin' centipedes!It's a regular hoodoo, and hands a fellow a hard-luck knock everytime he turns around. What's in the letter, anyway? If it's from TsanTi, I'll bet his paper talk is heavy with big words and all kinds ofClass A 'con' lingo. Read it, do. I can't tell how nervous you make mehanging fire."
"It's from Tsan Ti, all right," said Matt, "and is dated New York."
"New York! Why, he was hitting nothing but high places in the directionof 'Frisco, when he left here. How, in the name of all his ten thousanddemons of misfortune, does he happen to be in New York?"
"Listen," answered Matt, and began to read.
"'Esteemed and illustrious youth, whose never-to-be-forgotten services to me shine like letters of gold on a tablet of silver: Behold----'"
"Oh, the gush!" growled McGlory.
"'Behold,'" continued Matt, "'I send you the Eye of Buddha, the priceless jewel which belongs in the temple of Hai-chwang-sze, in my beloved Canton. You ask, of your perplexity, why is the jewel sent to you? and I reply, for the security's sake. Upon my trail comes Grattan, of the evil heart, weaving his plans for recovering the costly gem. I fear to keep it about me, and so I send to you asking that you remain with it in the Catskill Mountains until such time as I may come to you and receive it from your hands. This will be when the scoundrel Grattan is safely beheaded, or in prison, and clear of my way for all time. I turn to you of my perfect trust, and I adjure you, by the five hundred gods, not to let the ruby get for one moment out of your possession. Leave it nowhere, keep it by you always, either sleeping or walking, and deliver it to no one except to me, who, at the right time, will come and request it of you in my own person. Will it be an insult to offer you one thousand silver dollars and expense money for consummating this task? I commend you to the good graces of the supernal ones whose years are ten thousand times ten thousand!
"'TSAN TI, of the Red Button.'"
The reading finished, McGlory eased himself of a sputtering groan.
"Loaded up!" he exclaimed. "You and I, pard, just at the time wethought we were rid of Tsan Ti and Buddha's Eye for good, find thething shouldered onto us again, and trouble staring us in the face!Why didn't the mandarin deposit the ruby in some bank, or safe-depositvault? Better still, if Grattan was on his trail, why didn't he havethe express company take it to San Francisco for him instead of sendingit to you, at Catskill? He knows less, that Tsan Ti, than any otherheathen on top of earth. In order to keep himself out of trouble hehands us the Eye of Buddha, and switches the responsibility to us.Wouldn't that rattle your spurs?"
McGlory was profoundly disgusted.
"I reckon," he went on, "that this sidetracks us, eh? The big townis cut out of our reckoning until the mandarin shows up and claimsthe ruby. He may do that to-morrow, or next week, or next month--and,meanwhile, here we are, kicking our heels in this humdrum, back-number,two-by-twice town on the Hudson! Say, pard, I'd like to fight--and I'djust as soon take a fall out of that pesky mandarin as any one else."
"He offers us a thousand dollars and expenses," said Matt. "Tsan Tiwants to do the right thing, Joe."
"A million dollars and expenses won't pay us for hanging onto thatruby. It's a hoodoo, and you know that as well as I do, pard. We canexpect things to happen right from this minute. Say, put it somewherewhere it'll be safe! Put it in the hotel safe, or in a bank, or anyplace. Pass the risk along."
"Tsan Ti expressly stipulates that I am to keep the ruby about me,"demurred Matt.
"What of that?" snorted McGlory. "Are you working for Tsan Ti? Are youbound to do what he tells you to? What business is it of his if wechoose to show a little sense and get some one else to take charge ofthe ruby? The mandarin's an old mutton-head! If he wasn't he'd knowbetter than to send the Eye of Buddha to us. And in a common expresspackage, at that. What value did he put on it?"
McGlory picked up the wrapper that had covered the box and looked overthe address side.
"No value at all!" he exclaimed. "Either he didn't think of that, orelse he didn't want to pay for the extra valuation. If there had beena railroad wreck, and the ruby had been lost, our excellent mandarinwould have collected just fifty plunks from the express company--and Ireckon the Eye of Buddha is worth fifty thousand if it's worth a cent."
"Sometimes," said Matt reflectively, "it's safer to trust to luck thanto put such a terrific value on a package that's to be carried byexpress."
"Well," grunted McGlory, "I don't like his blooming Oriental way ofdoing business, and that shot goes as it lays. I'll tell you what wecan do," he added, brightening.
"What?"
"We can jump aboard that New York boat and tote the ruby back to NewYork; then we can hunt up Tsan Ti and return the thing to him and tellhim not any--that we have done as much for him as we're going to.Where's his letter sent from? What's the name of the hotel?"
In his eagerness, McGlory snatched the letter from Matt's knee andbegan looking it over.
"There's no address," said Matt.
"Tsan Ti may be in Chinatown," went on McGlory. "Such a big high boycouldn't get lost in the shuffle around Pell and Doyer Streets. Let'sgo on by that boat and take our chances locating him!"
"No," and Matt shook his head decidedly, "that's a move we can't make,Joe. I'm no more in love with this piece of work than you are, butwe're in for it, and there's no way to dodge. Tsan Ti has unloaded theruby upon us and we've got to stand for it."
"But we're responsible----"
"Of course, up to a certain point. If the stone should be taken awayfrom us, though, Tsan Ti couldn't hold us responsible. We didn't askfor the job of looking after it, and we don't want the job, but we'redoing what we can, you see, because there's no other way out of it."
"You could stow it away in a safer place than your pocket," grumbledMcGlory.
"In that event," returned Matt, "we might be responsible. The thing forus to do is to follow out our instructions to the letter. If anythinghappens to the Eye of Buddha then it's the mandarin himself who'sresponsible."
"And we're to hang out in the Catskill Mountains until Tsan Ti comesfor the ruby!" mused McGlory, in an angry undertone; "and he's notgoing to come until Grattan is 'beheaded' or clapped into jail. We'reliable to have a long wait. Of all the tinhorns I ever saw, or heardof, that Grattan is the sharpest of the lot. Fine job this red-buttonheathen has put onto us!"
Matt disliked the work of taking care of the valuable gem, and he wouldhave shirked the responsibility if he could have done so, but
therewas no way in which this could be brought about. He and Joe would haveto stay in the Catskills, for a while anyway, and wait for Tsan Tito present himself. Meanwhile, the trip to New York would have to bepostponed.
More to soothe his friend than as an expression of his own feelings,the king of the motor boys began taking a pleasanter view of thesituation.
"We know, pard," said he, "that Tsan Ti is a man of his word. Whenhe says he'll do anything, he does it. He'll come for the ruby, andI think he's clever enough to fool Grattan, and we know he'll pay usa thousand dollars. That money will come in handy while we're in NewYork."
"If we ever get there," growled the cowboy. "We may get into so muchtrouble on account of that Eye of Buddha that we'll be laid up in thehospital when Tsan Ti presents himself in these parts."
Matt laughed.
"You're so anxious to see the sights in the big town, Joe," heobserved, "that it's the delay, more than anything else, that'sbothering you."
"When I get started for anywhere," answered McGlory, "a bee line andthe keen jump is my motto. But, so long as we have anything to do withTsan Ti, we never know what's going to happen. I wish the squinch-eyedheathen would leave us alone."
Just then a form rounded the front of the hotel, gained the stepsleading up to the porch, and climbed to a place in front of the motorboys.
McGlory lifted his eyes. The moment they rested on the form, andrealization of who it was had flashed through his brain, he jumped forthe man and grabbed him with both hands.
"Bunce!" he whooped. "I told you things would begin to happen, pard,and right here is where they start!"
Then, with considerable violence, McGlory pushed the old sailor againstone of the porch posts, and held him there, squirming.
Motor Matt's Mariner; or, Filling the Bill for Bunce Page 3